
Reminder: You’ll Need Federal Government ‘Real ID’ if You Want to Fly in 2025
It’s Dec. 31, and we’re all busy contemplating just what lies ahead in 2025. Some of the changes will be predictable. For instance, we will have a president who will know he’s president starting on Jan. 20.
Some of the changes, however, aren’t as heavily advertised as others — and one of them might not be as welcome as you’d like, particularly if you don’t have a so-called “Real ID.”
You’ve probably forgotten about the “Real ID.” Back in 2005 — four years after 9/11 — Congress passed an act requiring new federal standards for identification, both making the cards more secure and harder to obtain.
Real ID requirements were supposed to go into effect on May 11, 2008. For perspective, that’s the day when the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Iron Man,” completed its first weekend at the box office in No. 1, and people born on that date will be graduating high school in the next year or two.
And yet, Real ID still hasn’t been implemented due to the challenges inherent in switching over the system. That’ll change this coming May, as news service Nexstar noted in a Sunday article.
“Come early May, you will need a REAL ID-compliant ID (which you may already have) to board a domestic flight. It will also be necessary if you are visiting certain federal facilities or entering a nuclear power plant,” the service reported.
“Once the REAL ID requirement kicks in, federal agencies like TSA will be prohibited from accepting state-issued IDs that do not meet the necessary standards.”
At this point, they noted, “all states must at least require proof of your legal name, date of birth, Social Security number, legal residency, and two forms verifying your address before issuing a driver’s license or ID card.”
“Thankfully, many states have been issuing REAL ID-compliant IDs for years, which means there is a good chance you already have one. The quickest way to tell is by looking at your driver’s license or state-issued ID: if there is a star — it will be either black or gold, appear as a star or a cutout — your ID is a REAL ID.”